Big reason to gather feedback before building… You care less

We’ve recently been gathering feedback for an idea that leverages our core product. Because we haven’t built it yet, we care less about whether people like the idea. This means it’s easier to ask the tough questions that actually improve on that idea. If we ultimately don’t end up with a concept that enough people will pay for, we’ll just scrap it. Minimum sunk cost.

By comparison, when we talk with potential customers about our core product (which we’ve invested considerable time into), we still try to push ourselves to ask those tough questions, but it’s much, much harder. We so badly want them to love what we already built that it makes it more difficult to ask the tough questions; the ones that test critical assumptions in our business where the answers might be painful, but are more likely to improve the product.

In short, if you haven’t built much yet, consider it an advantage. Talk to more customers now, while it’s easier.